High maintanence?

I heard a passer by the other day make a comment about my appearance. To them I was apparently high maintanence. Which got me thinking:

Is the Vintage look really high maintanence?

guess you could say that the 'Bleached Blonde, tanned babe' is our Fashion opposite, so lets compare:

Lets start of with something small, the nails. My nails are kept filed and painted in the classic 'Dita Von Teese" half moon style. The fashion opposite would be french tips, would you agree? Both styles take time to be painted, and can be just as tricky to the unskilled hand. You can choose false nails, Either gel or acrylic. So I'd say the nails for either style are fairly even as far as labour goes. But which one looks better?

Lets move onto clothing. I think Vintage wins here. Yes I agree that sometimes things are hard to find. But what a great feeling it is when you finally come across the vintage dress or coat you have been after for ages. I think we (when I saw we, I mean us Vintage fiends) pick and choose our garments with a lot more care and thought than our modern day counter parts. Selecting items carefully to what suits us rather than buying up big on the latest fashion, only to find that it doesnt suit your shape or size and are tossing it next year to buy the next latest trend. I often see women in dreadful unflattering clothing, who have only bought it because of the brand name and that 50 million others are wearing the exact same thing. I like the idea that the dress I purchased 2 summers ago is still going to be suitable, attractive and stylish in 5 or even 10 years time and regardless how old I get it will still be appropriate for my age.

Now Lets take a look at Hair and makeup. Going darker is less stress on the hair than bleaching. You dont have to dye it as often or use toning products to stop it looking brassy and as far as styling goes, placing your hair in rollers isnt really that hard compaired to strainghtening. A set of hot roller may set you back $40-70 depending on where you buy them, however a GHD can leave you with an empty purse. Make up - The basic vintage look needs only a few basic items of course you can ellaborate on this just as you could with the 'bleached babe look'

I'm no hater of the bleach blonde looks. I've wore the look for a while and I'd have to say I get far more comments (10-1) from strangers now with the vintage look than I ever did with the bleached look. I understand that this is all an individual thing and some 'looks' are suited to some women and while they may look shocking on others. But as far as high maintanence goes I'd have to say. I work less on my 'Vintage' look than I ever did on the 'bleached' look. In the end as the old saying goes "beauty is in the eye of the beholder" BUT who works harder to get it?

But what do you think? I am intersted in your comments!

How To: Half moon nails

I’m using:

• ·         Sally Hansen Double Duty Base and Top Coat
• ·         Revlon 760 Cherry Crush nail polish
• ·         Sally Hansen Nail art pen 01 White

Before you begin make sure you have plenty of time on your hands to do this (and if you have kids wait until they have gone to bed, as I found out)

Im going to show you 2 methods;

           Traditional way

1.       Coat your nails with a base coat and let completely dry

2.       Using the nail art pen draw on the half moons, do the outline first and then colour in

3.       Carefully paint your nails with your colour and let dry

4.       Apply top coat.

My way (I found it much easier after trying the above first)

1.       Coat your nails with a base coat and let completely dry

2.       Paint colour on as you usually do (full nail, and two coats if required) let dry completely!

3.       Draw on half moons as per above

4.       Apply top coat

Problems I came across

The traditional way is very tricky and I found myself going over the white again anyways. The nail art pen will cover the colour easily so you can draw it over the top of the colour and not see any of the dark colour coming through. Depending on what top coat you use I found that the white cracks under the top coat, but was fine if applied over the top. Make sure the paint is completely dry before applying the nail art pen or it just smudges.

I really liked the concept of the art pen. It was easy to use, good consistency and was happy with the colour. They came in a wide range of vibrant colours for all types of nail arts. They retail for around AU$12.95 and available from Priceline stores.